Imagine that you grow up in an environment where laboring is a way to sustain a so-so existence, and never anything more. The only way to make it big is to steal big. It's a life goal. If you get to a position if any power, you are expected to steal. If you do, others envy you. If you don't, others, including the regular folk, despise you, because they see you as an inept fool; were they in your position, they'd grab so much more! Also, your bosses tacitly expect that you grease their hand with some of the spoils from your position of some power; if you don't, you will lose your position, there are many more willing candidates.
The above happens naturally when people see the wealth of their community, or their whole society, as a loot box to grab, not as an orchard to grow. It's very easy to hold such views when much wealth comes from, well, grabbing natural resources like oil, ores, timber, etc. It may also be a convenient setup for those on the top, because it prevents people from trying to do something else than to get to the top the elites already control. No competition to the elites is going to form through cooperation and accumulation of wealth.
Once formed by greedy bandits, or instilled by conquerors (that is, greedy bandits from elsewhere), this sick system can continue as long as there are resources to extract and sell, boxes to loot. Of course even inside societies like those there are people who would prefer a different setup. Of course the change to a better society is not impossible. But it's a change that needs to alter ingrained values of many people, and topple many tiny power structures built on those which permeate the society. Such a change cannot be fast.
Imagine that you grow up in an environment where laboring is a way to sustain a so-so existence, and never anything more. The only way to make it big is to steal big. It's a life goal. If you get to a position if any power, you are expected to steal. If you do, others envy you. If you don't, others, including the regular folk, despise you, because they see you as an inept fool; were they in your position, they'd grab so much more! Also, your bosses tacitly expect that you grease their hand with some of the spoils from your position of some power; if you don't, you will lose your position, there are many more willing candidates.
The above happens naturally when people see the wealth of their community, or their whole society, as a loot box to grab, not as an orchard to grow. It's very easy to hold such views when much wealth comes from, well, grabbing natural resources like oil, ores, timber, etc. It may also be a convenient setup for those on the top, because it prevents people from trying to do something else than to get to the top the elites already control. No competition to the elites is going to form through cooperation and accumulation of wealth.
Once formed by greedy bandits, or instilled by conquerors (that is, greedy bandits from elsewhere), this sick system can continue as long as there are resources to extract and sell, boxes to loot. Of course even inside societies like those there are people who would prefer a different setup. Of course the change to a better society is not impossible. But it's a change that needs to alter ingrained values of many people, and topple many tiny power structures built on those which permeate the society. Such a change cannot be fast.